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On the whole island there were but three miserable huts, and one

of these was vacant when I arrived. This I hired. It contained

but two rooms, and these exhibited all the squalidness of the

most miserable penury. The thatch had fallen in, the walls were

unplastered, and the door was off its hinges. I ordered it to be

repaired, bought some furniture, and took possession, an incident

which would doubtless have occasioned some surprise had not all

the senses of the cottagers been benumbed by want and squalid

poverty. As it was, I lived ungazed at and unmolested, hardly

thanked for the pittance of food and clothes which I gave, so

much does suffering blunt even the coarsest sensations of men.